The center will be allowed to setup the umbilical core blood bank after it gets approval from the Ministry of Public Health and collects a certain amount of umbilical core blood. Center officials said it has resolved the technical issues involved in setting up the blood bank.

With this blood bank, the center aims to help more leukemia patients by withdrawing and preserving their own umbilical core blood of that of their siblings when they are born.

Umbilical core blood is a low effective, easy-to-conduct and a more efficient alternative to bone marrow surgery, which most leukemia patients currently undergo.

A four-year-old boy has survived the fatal disease thanks to transplant of stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of his seven-month-old brother.

He is the city's first patient to successfully undergo surgery for leukemia using sibling's umbilical core blood. The surgery took place in March.

The whole treatment cost 200,000 yuan (US$18,072).

Bone marrow transplants normally cost 200,000 to 300,000 yuan.

Doctors said about 75 percent of sibling's umbilical cord blood can be used on patients while there's only a one in 10,000 chance of finding a matching blood type if one were to go to a bone marrow bank.

(eastday.com June 14, 2002)